Burglar-proof-safe door



H. B. TRIPP.

BOROLAR PROOF SAFE DOOR. A Patented Mey 12, 1885.

N. PLIERS. PhnlLilhngmphar, wnhngton. D. C.

(No Model.)

N'ITED STATES- PATENT Ormea.

HIRAM B. TRIPP, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

BU PtGLAR-PROOF-SAFE DOOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent' No. 317,688, dated May 12,1885. Application filed February 9, 1885. (Nomodel.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HIRAM BRADFORD TRIPP, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Baltimore, in the county of Baltimore and State ofMaryland, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inBurglar-Proof- Safe Doors; and I do hereby declare the following to be afull, clear, and exact descrip tion ofthe invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame.

My invention relates to burglar-proof safes, vaults, &c.; and my saidinvention consists in a novel construction of the door of said safe orvault, whereby injury to the combination and time locks and lockingbolt-work thereof is prevented should an attempt be made to effect anentrance within said safe or vault by means of an explosive agentdischarged against the front of the door thereof.

In order to effect an entrance to safes, vaults, 85e., a charge of somepowerful explosive agent, usually dynamite, has been discharged againstthe front of the door of said safe or vault in order to force or springthe metal plates composing said door inward, and thereby break or wrenchout of position the mechanism of the combination and time locks, one orboth, or the bolts and other connections employed to secure the lockingbolt-work to the inner face of the door. It has been found that when acharge of dynamite has been so placed and exploded against the front ofa safe-door the inner metal plates thereof would be forced inwardfromthree to five eighths of an inch, (depending upon the size of thecharge,) and that because ofthe elasticity of said plates composing thedoor they would again spring back or return to their normal position, ornearly so. rlhe result of this movement back and forth or vibration ofthe plates of safedoors incident to the force of the explosive has beenthat the time-lock, the combinationlock, and the series of conical boltsby which the bolt-work was secured to the door have been, one or all,completely destroyed, not

unfrequently all the bolts and other fastenings employed to secure thelocking boltwork to the door, as well as the mechanism of both thecombination and time locks, being either completely broken down or sowrenched plishing the desired result.

out of place as to be useless for the purposes intended.

Various expedients have been resorted to to prevent the destruction ofthe combination and time locks and the severance of the bolts employedto secure the locking bolt-work to the doors of safes, Ste., by thevibration ofthe plates of said door-such, for instance, as arrangingsprings or rubber cushions to the locks and conical bolts, whereby topermit said parts to vibrate with said plates; but in doing this the-said parts have been rendered more complicated, expensive, and not sostrong or durable as is necessary, and without accom- This invention istherefore directed to the accomplishment of this object-viz., to preventinjury to the mechanism of the combination and time locks and thebolt-Work of the doors of safes, vaults, 85e., in the event of anattempt being made to open said door by 'discharging dynamite or othersimilar explosive agent against the face of the same; and to this endythe said inverntion consists in forming the door of said. safe, 8vo.,with a space between the plates thereof, to permit a free vibration ofthe front plates, against `which the discharge was directed, withoutaffecting the inner plates, to which the locks and locking bolt-work aresecured.

As now'ordinarily constructed, a burglar proof safe or vault door iscomposed of a number of solid metal plates riveted close and ushtogether. In fire-proof safes and vaults, in addition tothe metalplates, a filling of concrete or other hard substance has been infterposed between the front and rear plates or walls of the door, andsometimes water or other liquid has been circulated around the safe orvault through pipes or a space provided for this purpose. In all ofthese cases the doors of the safes, vaults, 85e., have been, practicallyspeaking, a solid structure 5 in other words, no free and unobstructedspace has been left in said doors, as is contemplated by this invention,and none of the plates thereof could vibrate without affecting them all.

As before stated, various expedients have been resorted to to prevent orlessen the disastrous effect of the explosion of dynamite against theface of the door of safes and vaults,

IOO

but, so far as I am informed, they have all been directed `to the locksand bolts of the locking bolt-work and not to the door itself,

as in my proposed invention, which I willl now proceed to particularlydescribe, reference being had to the accompanying drawings for a betterunderstanding of the same, and in whichv Figure l represents a sectionalplan view of a portion of a safe or vault door constructed in accordancewith my invention and Fig. 2 is a similar view of an ordinaryburglar-proof safe or vault door, showing the position of said door an dthe usual conical bolts employed to secure the locking-bolts to thedoor.

The door shown in Fig. 2 is composed of the several metal plates a b c dc f g, secured flush together by the bolts, screws, or rivets i andj.

A represents the usual locking-bolts, secured to the inner face ofthedoor by the large conical-shaped bolts k, entering a frame, l. B is thehinge, and C is the handle or lever for throwing the locking-bolts A.These parts just described are all of the usual construction andarrangement, and the plates thereof are all secured close and flushtogether. When thus constructed, should pressure be applied to the frontof the door, the front plate thereof would be pressed against thesecond, andy so on until the entire door is forcedy or bent inward,resulting, as before stated, in the destruction of either thecombination or time locks, one or both, or, as shown in Fig.- 2, thebreaking of the conical bolts employed to secure the locking bolt-workin position thereon. In either event, whether the combination or timelocks are destroyed, an entrance to the safe-or vault vis then acomparatively easy matter; but when, as is most usually the case,

the conical bolts of the bolt-work are-broken, as in Fig. 2, the doorwould be entirely disconnected from the bolt-work and forced open, asshown. rIherefore, to prevent this breaking of these conical bolts isthe point most desired, and which is accomplished by my invention in thefollowing manner:

Instead of securing all the plates composing the door iiush together, asin Fig. 2, I propose to omit one or more, preferably, of the frontplates, as shown at D, Fig. l. To effect this, one or more narrow piecesor strips, d', are placed around the edges of the door after the iirstor second front plate thereof, so that a clear and unobstructed spaceover almostl the entire central surface of the door is formed in thewalls thereof, as shown. This space is preferably at the front of thedoor, immediately after the first or second layer of metal plates,insead of at the back or centralportion thereof; but said space may beformed either at the front, back, or center, as desired or found toaccomplish the best results, and it is proposed to have said space toextend over nearly the entire portion of the door, with only sufficientmargin around it to effect the proper fastening of the plates composingthe door. If desired, an elastic filling of lightv rubber may be placedin this space; but it is preferred and thought to accomplish the bestresults by leaving said space entirelyfree and unobstructed. The objectof thus forming a safe-door is to permit of the free vibration of theouter wall of the door when a charge of dynamite or other explosive isdischarged against the same, so that the force of the eX- plosion willbe exerted against the said front plate only, and said plate may vibrateback and forth without affecting the locks or bolts and other fasteningsof the bolt-work. By reason of this space in the walls of the safedoorthe freevibration of the front plate or plates thereof is permitted,while the rear plates remain intact. No injury to the locks or bolt-workcan therefore result should an explosive be discharged against theoutside of the door.

It may happen that the force of the discharge severed the bolts by whichthe front plates were secured to the main body of the door, in whichevent said front plate only could be removed, and a second discharge, ormore, if the door were provided with two or more spaces instead of one,would be necessary before the bolt-work would be reached.

Should a rubber or other very elastic filling be placed in the spaceformed in the door, it must be of such nature as to permit of a freemovement of the outer plates of the door otherwise the said plates maybe forced against the rubber and compress it against the inner platessufficiently to produce the result this invention is intended toovercome-viz., injury to the bolt-work and locks.

I have described and shown the door as being made, of separate solidplates of metal secured together, this being the usual way of makingthese doors, and as forming the space therein by omitting the centralportion of one or more of said plates; but said door may be formed inany manner desired, and the plates may be hollow instead of solid, as atpresent, or they may be in one piece with a suitable space formedtherein, instead of employing the narrow strips around the edge, ifdesired, no

lclaim to any such details of construction as these being made by meherein, the gist of my invention being the forming of the door so as topermit a free vibration of the front plates or portion thereof Withoutaffecting the rear plates or portion and instead of forming the door ofsafes, Svc., of a solid structure of metal plates, rubber sheets orother suitable elastic packing may be interposed between said metalplates, whereby any jar or pressure applied against the front portion ofthe door or wall would be taken up by said elastic filling and dispelledbefore it reached the inner plates or wall, so that the locks andbolt-work would also in this instance be protected from injury, probablythe same as if the structure were merely formed with free spacesinterposed be.- tween the walls thereof, as at first proposed.

I am aware that safes have been formed with an air-space in the wallsthereof to render IOO IZO

the said safe buoyant 5 also, that a rubber pad has been placed behindthe knob-spindles of safe-locks. This, therefore, I do not claim as myinvention; but

What I do claim as new and of my invention, and desire to secureprotection therefor by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

1. A burglar-proofsafe or vault door formed of a series of separatemetal plates having one or more spaces or openings between the inner andouter plates thereof', substantially as described, whereby, should anexplosive be discharged against said door, the front plates or portioncomposing the same would freely vibrate without affecting the innerplates or portion of the structure to which the locks and HIRAM B.TRIPP.

Witnesses A. M. TANNER, J. A. RUTHERFORD.

